THE HISTORY OF THE BUCS UK - 1988 TO 1991 In the meantime, my interest in American Football and the Bucs had continued and in October 1988, following continued correspondence with Bill Thompson, I was planning my first trip across the Atlantic. I decided to try and re-start the club and created an initial issue of The Buccaneer which was sent to all the previous contacts. Around 20 people got back in touch, and another issue followed before I arrived in Tampa in November 1988. The Buccaneers used my visit as a huge publicity stunt and the 10 days were simply a blur. I was guest of honour at a Clearwater Bucs Bunch meeting, spoke at a business luncheon with Coach Ray Perkins, and then was invited down to One Buc Place to meet all the tean on a Saturday morning. There they had me presented with my own playing shirt with No.9 and my name on the back and I was invited to watch the game the following day against the Bears from the team sideline. If you think you've seen football at close range from the stands then you haven't lived! Until Mike Singletary has gone barrelling in front of you tackling a Buc receiver, you don't realise just how hard these guys hit. I was interviewed by TV, radio and newspapers galore, and ended the game having my picture taken with Vinny by an old friend from the early days, photographer Wayne Paolo. I was also able to return to the UK with a ton of free merchandise for club members including media guides, posters and badges. We even managed to persuade a certain Mr.Halling, then editor of Gridiron UK magazine to run a feature on my trip in return for one of the cheerleader posters. And who said bribery and corruption never works? Phil Carter was becoming increasingly involved in the running of the Bucs UK on its re-birth and printed 1,000 coloured headed paper and magazine cover sheets for the club. Current members Steve Reeder, Myke Crombleholme and Neil Ferguson joined the club in early 1989 and First Down's Allan Lees began a series of great references to the club in his weekly column. The American Bowl game that year featured Philadelphia and Cleveland and a bunch of us met at Wembley to form a small orange contingent in the stands. The 1989 club trip Phil joined our own Allan Lees (not to be confused with the FD editor of the same name) and Gary Botteley on a club trip to Tampa in November 1989. I would have joined them but the engine on my sports car blew up about a month before and left me unable to afford the trip. The trio saw home games against Minnesota and Cleveland and also addressed the Clearwater booster club one evening. The trip also resulted in one of the great practical jokes of the club's history when Phil and Gary convinced Allan to stand on a bridge at Busch Gardens to take their picture. Anyone who has been to Busch will know exactly which bridge too, the one over the Tidal Wave ride. Allan naturally got totally soaked and the other two were left helpless with laughter for the rest of the trip. In March 1990, Lee Berry of First Down ran a full page feature on myself that included a brief history of the Bucs UK and also a great piece from Rick Odioso of the Bucs whom they had got in touch with. The membership continued to grow and Mick Luckhurst became a good contact thanks to his weekly column in FD. Panini brought out their one and only American Football sticker collection in the UK and Phil Carter and I were like kids again running around with swops, trying to collect the full set of 300. August 1990 brought nearly 25 club members to Wembley for the American Bowl game between the Raiders and Saints, and also a meeting in Walsall to discuss the long-term future of the Bucs UK. The quartet in charge of such momentous decisions were myself, Phil Carter, Gary Botteley and Gary Hughes. I cannot recall many great decisions being made but quite a lot of alcohol was consumed! Of course in these days, there was just blind faith that the Buccaneers were going to be successful the next season. Then we would lose a few games and the cry of "There's Always Next Year" would echo around the club leading to the change in name of the magazine. The 1990 club trip In October 1990, I made my second trip to Tampa joining Phil Carter for a pair of home games against the Packers and Cowboys. We ended up guests of honour at a Clearwater Bucs meeting when Harry Swayne didn't show up, but then joined him the following week instead when he insisted on buying us beer all evening to say thankyou for covering him. Little did we all realise he would end up playing in four SuperBowls over the next decade as one of the NFL's best offensive tackles. Rick Odioso and the Bucs gave us boxes of merchandise for other club members and we were able to give all 48 club members, media guides, cards and an individual prize on our return. Phil Carter and I were also interviewed by Buccaneer Radio during the Dallas game, the one where Troy Aikman hit Michael Irvin in the final minute for the game winner. Listening to that radio broadcast in another part of the stadium was another Brit who decided to get in touch with me when we all returned to the UK. "My name's Phil Jones" said the caller one evening. "Can I join your club?" The club gained some added publicity late in 1990 when I appeared on a couple of UK TV shows, a BBC quiz show when I had been out celebrating the Bucs' win over the Vikings the night before a little too heavily, and Sky TV's version of Blind Date. Believe it or not, I won and went out with Rayne Barrett from Stockport. First Down just could not wait to get the pictures and ran the story the following week with much hilarity all around. 1990 ended with Ray Perkins being fired and my eight-hour abandonment of the Buccaneer cause. I was just fed up with the losing, and at 4-8 that season, took all the pictures down and gave up. Next morning, I put them all back and have never wavered for so much as a minute since! The Bucs UK touch football team The 1991 American Bowl saw the first touch football game arranged at Wembley as the Bucs UK took on the Steelers' fan club in the car parks before the game. We lost 24-12 but I threw a TD pass to Peter Parsons and Spencer Whybrow added a rushing score for the Buccaneer cause. Mick Luckhurst took great delight in watching from the sideline and commenting that a Buccaneer team losing was nothing new to behold! September 1991 saw the magazine nearly double in size thanks to Geoffrey Hall taking over the printing at a greatly reduced cost. Phil Jones produced his first Bucs UK shirt for the club and Andy Frampton became involved in game videos too. Membership exceeded 50 for the first time and thanks to a good relationship with Channel 4's teletext operation, the club was getting membership enquries on a far more frequent basis. Rick Odioso was always helpful in supplying Buc information for the magazine and in arranging game tickets, although the Bucs were far from the point of selling out Tampa Stadium.